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Modeling of Anionic Polymerization of Isoprene in an Industrial Reactor
Author(s) -
RodriguezGuadarrama Luis
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
macromolecular reaction engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1862-8338
pISSN - 1862-832X
DOI - 10.1002/mren.201900008
Subject(s) - isoprene , polymerization , anionic addition polymerization , chemistry , cyclohexane , cationic polymerization , polymer , monomer , chain growth polymerization , polymer chemistry , organic chemistry , copolymer , radical polymerization
One of the most important reasons for modeling polymerization processes is to provide a tool for estimating the risks of runaway reactions in polymer industry. This is especially important for batch processes, such as anionic polymerization of isoprene or butadiene. This work presents a theoretical and experimental research of the anionic polymerization of isoprene using cyclohexane as solvent and n ‐butyllithium as initiator. In the first part, a phenomenological kinetic expression is obtained that describes the anionic polymerization of isoprene initiated by n ‐butyllithium in cyclohexane. In the second, the mass and energy balance equations are solved to model the anionic polymerization of isoprene in a quasi‐adiabatic batch reactor. Adjustment of reactor parameters is made using the data obtained from a laboratory reactor. The proposed model predicts adequately the obtained temperature, pressure, and conversion profiles from this set of experiments. Finally, a mathematical model is developed to predict the behavior for the anionic polymerization of isoprene in an industrial reactor.